Hypnotically Induced False Memories for Dieters . . . . . . no thank you | Brian David Phillips Shifting eXperiential Reality

Rosie Mestel writes about new research on the use of hypnosis to alter memories related to diet in the Los Angeles Times of 2 Aug. 005. While I’ve seen this elsewhere and had already prepared the bulk of this response piece when I saw a note from at least one well known hypnotist, Cal Banyan, who points to the article on a recent study by famed memory researcher Elizabeth Loftus regarding an experimental approach to therapy for dieters in which folks have false memories implanted regarding their experiences with foods:

In their battle against the bulge, desperate dieters have tried drugs, surgery, exercise, counseling, creams and even electrical fat-burning belts. Now some psychologists have a new idea: Lying. A team led by psychologist Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, found that it could persuade people to avoid fattening foods by implanting unpleasant childhood memories about the food, though the event never happened.

After initial reservations, Banyan’s take is one of maybe I’ll give it a go if my client really needs the impetus and maybe it will work:

I don’t know, but at first I thought “that is all wrong!” But then I got to thinking about it for a while. If it worked, and it probably would for some people given the right kind of approach is used (real age regression therapy with pseudo-revivification), then it has to be better than getting your stomach stapled! What if it were that easy? A few hypnosis sessions and you love lettuce without salad dressing and you hate sugary sweets because you have false memories of getting sick on ice cream as a kid and have fond memories of sitting in front of the television happily munching away on a head of lettuce? Hmm, I will have to think about it, but I think I would "give it a go," as they say, if it was what my client really needed and nothing else seemed to help.

To his credit, Cal is less than enthusiastic on this one (he trains folks to use some powerful methods that I also use so I am familiar with his basic results-orieintation, one that I share). I’ve seen a few posts on a couple lists which are going a bit gaga over the article’s claims that this may indeed be the way to go for chronic obesity issues. A couple folks have mentioned one of Milton Erickson’s cases where he did a similar manipulation of memory experiences but it should be noted that while any method may work for one or two people, this does not mean that we should inductively apply the method to everyone. A case study is a single example, and while it should open our eyes to possibilities, it is not indicative of results for most people. Please note that the paper makes no such claims for applying this sort of thing universally to weight loss clients . . . it is a tentative first-course study on the relationship of memories to food and manipulating them (not even a long-term relationship change). Actual results discussed are on the memories themselves rather than on any dietary changes. Other than the tagline, the efficacy of the technique as a therapeutic tool is not even fully explored.

Yes, it may indeed help some folks. However, my own reaction is not so positive. I’ve discussed memory replacement, false memory, and memory alteration strategies for hypnosis in the past and I am still very much on the negative side of the approach as it is irresponsible, longitudinally ineffective, and potentially dangerous. For background on the subject in other contexts, see these essays:

Memories are constructs that have emotional context. It is interesting that Loftus is the one spearheading this particular approach as she is perhaps best known for her work with memory and her position that many of the so-called therapeutic recovered memories regarding childhood sexual abuse are false. She has done a lot of work on implanting memories and well understands the mechanisms as well as how false memories can very easily be manipulated inappropriately. Obviously, her intention is not manipulation but therapeutic gain here.

Basically, her paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, details how her team changed relationships test subjects (students) had with certain foods by implanting false childhood memories of events that were negative regarding those foods. The experimental construct worked with both positive memory relationships to diet-positive foods and negative memories about diet-negative foods:

…the team said it successfully turned people off strawberry ice cream and in earlier studies it has done the same with pickles and hard-boiled eggs, in each case, by manipulating the subjects to think the foods made them sick when they were children. The scientists say they have also successfully implanted positive opinions about asparagus by convincing subjects that they once loved the vegetable. The method, if perfected, could induce people to eat less of what they shouldn’t and more of what they should, Loftus said. Good memories about fruits and vegetables could be implanted, and bad ones on low nutrient, high-calorie foods. In the strawberry ice cream experiment, Loftus and her team asked 131 students to fill out forms about their food experiences and preferences, including questions about their experiences with strawberry ice cream. The subjects were then given a computer analysis of their responses that was supposed to indicate their "true" likes and dislikes. A group of 47 students, however, were also inaccurately told that the analysis made it clear they had gotten sick from eating strawberry ice cream as a child. Of these, almost 20 percent later agreed on a questionnaire that they had, in fact, been sickened by the treat and that they intended to avoid it. The findings were stronger in a second experiment where, in addition to the other steps, students were asked to provide details about the imaginary strawberry ice cream episode. In that case, 41 percent of the subjects given erroneous information later believed the tale and said they intended to avoid the food. Several weight-control experts expressed interest in the study, but skepticism about using implanted memories as a dieting technique. Deliberately implanting memories also "raises profound ethical questions," said Stephen Behnke, director of the ethics office of the American Psychological Association. Loftus is most famous for her position on recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Based on her work, she has suggested that most of these memories were probably false.

I agree with Behnke’s assessment that deliberately implanting memories raises some ethical considerations. Besides, I would also strongly suggest that fales memory therapy is only a temporary substitution strategy for most folks. Memories are emotional constructs and it is the emotional connection that needs to be released, not hidden through false repression strategies. A much more fruitful and useful tool is to create new relationships to one’s past . . . the real past . . . in which past negative energies are no longer needed. This can be done in any of a number of ways . . . Tebbets Parts Therapy, Hypnoanalsysis and Regression to Cause, new approaches to Timeline therapy, 3D Mind or other changework systems. One needs to release the past, not get hung up in it and certainly not pretend it never happened. The here and the now is the place to live, not in a false past. If we artificially repress our pasts (and memory replacement therapy represses memories of real events in order to create the new false memories), then we setup a system designed to fail . . . or, at the very least, one that is much more fragile than reality (certainly, by creating new emotional relationships to our real past we are in no danger of having reminders of the real events tosss our work out the window but with memory replacement type therapies any reminder of the actual event – an offhand remark by a friend or loved one, a photography, whatever – puts the entire system in danger of collapse).

I much prefer to work at the level of changing permanent connections and relationships rather than to temporarily blocking memories.

Do note that the newspaper article does not give any data on efficacy for dieting or permanent weight loss . . . it only deals with the memories . . . I don’t know the data, but from other information on memory for habit control of this type, my guess is that substitution strategies will develop that allow the person to continue previous eating habits (perhaps substituting other foods or behaviors for the ones that are now taboo) as the root cause for the problem has not been sufficiently dealt with.

Be that all is it may or may not be, another possible problem with this sort of therapy is that the experiment was done at both the level of creating positive past memories to replace former memories (liking veggies instead of hating them) but also to create negative memory associations (suggesting that the students in the experiment hate and loathe and really want to avoid certain sweets). Creating negative associations with the aversion theme is both ethically questionable and systemically disempowering . . . in effect, creating a kind of miniphobia response related to the food in question. As Roy Hunter noted in one of my email lists, it removes an individuals power of choice. Personally, I believe it also sets up other problems for the future as well. There really are far better and more effective ways to do things without aversion, fear, or similar strategies. Our job as hypnotists is to empower people, not screw with their heads.

This is, of course, my opinion. Others are indeed free to disagree.

All the best,
Brian
http://www.briandavidphillips.com